In the former epistle to thee Dear friend Theophilus I have written the veritie Of the Lord Christ Jesus. * * * * * Empedocles professed the system of four elements, and added thereto two principles which he called ‘principium amicitiæ and principium contentionis.’ What are these but attraction and repulsion? * * * * * The Count Bielfeld's definition of poetry is ‘L'art d'exprimer les pensées par la fiction.’ The German terms Dichtkunst, _the art of fiction_, and Dichten to _feign_, which are used for _Poetry_, and _to make verses_, are in full accordance with his definition. * * * * * The Germans have epic poems composed in metre of sixteen and seventeen syllables. * * * * * The following Vaudeville is one of the drollest of its kind: Quand un bon vin meuble mon estomac Je suis plus savant que Balzac— Plus sage que Pibrac. Mon bras seul faisant l'attaque De la nation Cossaque La mettroit au sac. De Charon Je passerois le lac En dormant dans son bac. J'irois au fier Eac Sans que mon cœur fit tic ni tac Présenter du tabac. * * * * * On ancient monuments are often found the letters A. E. R. A. meaning Annus erat Regni Augusti. The ignorance of copyists may probably have formed of these letters the single word ÆRA. Would it not be a better derivation than the Latin ÆS? * * * * * The work of John Albert Fabricius, the Hamburg professor, entitled Bibliotheca Græca, in which his sole object is to render an account of the _Greek_ authors _extant_, occupies fourteen thick volumes in quarto. * * * * * The usual derivation of the word Metaphysics is not to be sustained. _Meta physicam_ is tortured into meaning _super physicam_, and the science is supposed to take its name from its superiority to physics. The truth is, that Aristotle's treatise on Morals is next in succession to his Book of Physics, and this order he considers the rational order of study. His Ethics consequently commence with the words Μετα τα φυσικα, &c. from which the word Metaphysics. * * * * * The commentators upon Mr. Beckford's Vathek say that the _locusts_ derive their name from having been so called by the first English settlers in America. The word comes evidently from _loco usto_, the havoc they made wherever they passed leaving the appearance of a place desolated by fire. * * * * * M. Patru was convinced that in all his prose writings no sentence or part of a sentence could be found so _cadenced_ as to form a verse. A friend, however immediately pointed out to him the words in his ‘Plaidoyers’ Septième plaidoyer pour un jeune Allemand. * * * * *